Monday, November 9, 2009

Mom’s knee is progressing. She’s no longer tied to the house and the in-home care and physical therapists have stopped coming over. She now sees a PT, Edwin at Mountlake Physical Therapy twice per week. He sounds like a great guy and makes her laugh and keeps her encouraged. She needs that.

It’s been frustrating for her to not be back in full form as quickly as she’d have liked. The doctors told her it would take 6 months, but she somehow heard 6 weeks. Although she’s accepted it’s going to take longer than she hoped, she’s not pleased with it. She’s been repeating this story about a man at her church who is older than her and had the same surgery. It only took him 2 weeks to be able to fully pedal a bike and she doesn’t feel she’s there yet. Strange to me because every night I see her in the corner on her stationary bike pedaling and pedaling. She’s also started doing her little walking videos, but hasn’t quite been able to complete one. On Saturday we were walking through a parking lot and she was keeping up with me. I’d slowed down for her, but not like I had a few months ago. She’s trying and that’s so important.

I try pointing out the progress I see and we talk about how lucky she is in other ways. A friend of mine hurt her ankle and is unable to do her job. She’s been home for over a month now living on short-term disability and going crazy. Mom doesn’t have to worry about that and reminders like that help her put things back into perspective. I’m not in my mom’s body, so I don’t know what she’s feeling. I know she still hurts and wants to meet her goals and get back out walking as fast as ever. I’ve been injured as well so can certainly understand the desire to get better already and get back to life as you once knew it. Yet she’s 66 years old and was already contending with weak bones and an injured back, so even though it’s difficult, she trying to remain patient and reasonable about her recovery goals.